kay invited me to the houston livestock show and rodeo. now, madam president, i grew up in baltimore -- you have been there many times yourself. you know it is a city known for his row houses, not for its rodeos. kay invited me to come into the rodeo in the astrodome. with i showed up, to her surprise -- well, i showed up, to her surprise. i had little boots on, a cowgirl hat and a vest. she put me in a buckboard and deep in the heart of texas we circled the astrodome together. i was in a buckboard. she was in a pall m palomino neo me. at the end of the evening, i was there munching on barbecue, affectionately called buckboard barb, and that's the kind of thing -- and i have the pictures to show it. they're locked up. i don't widely distribute them much but it was a heck of an evening. i say that because, again, out of that comes great friendships that also lead to smoothing the way, not paving -- actually, not smoothing the way -- paving the way, where we put our heads together to solve our national problems, a understand t and toy where